Meeting of the Parliament 31 January 2023 [Draft]
We are working very closely with Trading Standards Scotland to understand what key improvements could be made in Scotland to stamp out illegal sales. I also plan to raise with the minister for public health in the UK Government what we can do collectively, along with the other devolved Governments, to stop this growing trend. That includes looking to see where we can be much stronger around issues such as flavouring, which we know is a significant draw for younger people. Kenneth Gibson is right to highlight the evidence of a link between menthol flavour and smoking. I am horrified when I see and hear about the range of flavourings available and how these devices are being marketed to directly appeal to our children and young people.
Members may be aware that the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity has commissioned an urgent review of the environmental impacts of disposable vapes. As a number of members said, as well as being a form of single-use plastic, they contain batteries and are particularly toxic to our environment. I look forward to the results of that review. A ban is one possible outcome, which I would welcome from both an environmental and a public health point of view.
Siobhian Brown and others raised a very important point about nicotine addiction. I hear the concerns about the impact of nicotine on brain health, the concerns about lung health and the link to taking up smoking, as highlighted by the World Health Organization, but all of us here need to be concerned about the way that this formulation, like smoking—I am a pharmacist, so please indulge me—is highly addictive. The drug nicotine gets very speedily and in good concentration into the bloodstream, across the blood-brain barrier to the site of action. It gives you a hit. These are uniquely addictive products and we all know that smoking tobacco is a consequence and a cause of health inequalities. Children becoming addicted to these products at a very young age means a lifetime of sales for the companies marketing them and a lifetime impact on their spending power on other issues. It is just frightening.
The long-term goal is to create a Scotland where everyone can flourish, with improved health and reduced health inequalities. Ensuring that young people are not growing up addicted to vapes and addicted to nicotine, with all the health and economic harms that that brings, is acutely important in achieving that goal.
This autumn we will publish a refreshed tobacco action plan, which will renew our commitment to achieving the 2034 target of lowering smoking rates in our communities to below 5 per cent. We want children born since 2013 to be free from tobacco, so that, when they turn 21, they will be tobacco free and will come of age in a Scotland that will remain tobacco free for generations to come. Note that we have a tobacco free target in Scotland, not a smoke free target.